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The 28 Federal Executive Boards across the country play an integral role in bringing agencies together and ensuring communication to and from Washington. The organizations coordinate agencies' efforts and provide input during policy development. FEBs play a key role during emergencies by acting as the conduit of information.

The FEB network has evolved considerably since it was established via an executive order of President Kennedy. Unfortunately, the FEBs' operational leadership varies widely in quality. "The good, the bad, and the ugly" could well be used to describe the current cadre of FEB executive directors. Each remains an employee of one of the major employers in their respective major metropolitan areas, and while most contributing agencies try to identify someone with the needed skills to function well in these demanding positions, some clearly regard them as dumping grounds for those employees they can most easily spare, as I have seen personally in dealings with many of the FEBs over the years in one capacity or another. As a result, you wind up with a patchwork high caliber leadership counterbalanced by pockets of apathy and sloth. There remains great potential for the FEB network to function as a stong two way linkage between the field and DC policy setters, but a number of FEBs are hampered by the lack of effective day-to-day leadership from their current mediocre executive directors.